Vegas just the two of us Pre Trip

[smudge79]

Well what a few weeks it's been. This started out as us planning a wee break for the two of us with my mum offering to look after the children. We spent ages looking at flight and hotel combinations and drove myself crazy looking on Trip Advisor reviews (bad idea!) so still undecided about where to stay we went out for a meal a fortnight ago and my other half proposed! Totally out of the blue and unexpected. He had bought the ring and everything! We've been together for 15 years and have 2 kids.

Obviously this changed the whole dynamic of our planned trip. It's got to be special. So we ended up paying extra for a direct Virgin flight and are staying in a suite at Vdara for 6 nights ( got a really good rate.) I have had a crazy few days as I had no idea you needed to order a wedding dress so far in advance. A note for anyone thinking about it, 7 weeks is not very long to plan a wedding.

Anyway here we are all booked, wedding dress found, kilt hire sorted, wedding package booked. All advice and tips welcome as I feel totally out of my depth planning wise. This is what we have so far;

Tuesday Jan 3rd- Fly to Gatwick
Twilight check in
Overnight at Hilton (club card vouchers)

Wednesday 4th- Fly to Las Vegas arrive 14.40
Check in to hotel
Taxi to register office to get wedding licence
Food and quiet evening

Thursday 5th- Explore some of the strip
Any last minute wedding organising
?

Friday 6th- Wedding at Valley of Fire 3pm
Meal at Canaletto or Top of the World?
Casinos/ Cocktails

Saturday 7th- Post wedding lazy morning
More exploring
Penn and Teller 9pm

Sunday 8th- Helicopter and Ranch tour of Grand Canyon 6am
Collect hire car
Shopping

Monday 9th- Drive to Hoover Dam/Lake Mead
?

Tuesday 10th - Check out
Return car
Spare few hours
Fly home 16.30


That's our plan so far. We intend to fit in another show ( probably Love) but not sure which night. We have a list of places we would like to eat at . Any other suggestions for when we have the car?

I feel much more organised now that I've written it all down!

[smudge79]

Just wanted to bump this to see if anyone had any suggestions to improve our plan. Also we have planned a route to drive to Hoover Dam, Lake Mead then into Arizona to kingman and drive a small section of route 66 for the day we have our hire car.

[daytonababe]

Hi , we went on a child free trip to Vegas this year , previously we had taken the kids with us and will do again next year.

We tend to split the strip into 3 parts for looking round the hotels, North, South and Middle part, and even having been 3 times we havent seen them all .

Whilst you have the car what about a trip out to the off strip casinos, i really like wandering around Sams Town and South Point etc, maybe thats something you could do on your last day to kill a few hours? We have a car the whole time but often just go out for a long drive and see where it takes us, see some of the "real" Vegas.
What about driving to the two shopping outlets and/or Town Square , plenty of shopping on the strip but the outlets are where the bargains are.

Have you ever seen Pawn Stars on tv? there shop is fun to wander round for a bit, its turned into bit of a tourist attraction now and sometimes the queue to get in is huge.

Are you planning on doing things like the Gondola Ride at the Venetian,Stratosphere Tower, Eiffel tower, Secret Garden Habitat, Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay? Its all things that we've done in the evenings.

[smudge79]

Thanks. The shopping that I included is intended to be a trip to the outlet at Primm. We watched Pawn Stars in Florida this year and will probably pop by the shop. We also plan to visit Fremont Street on one of the evenings and I at least need to take a picture of the Sams Town sign as i'm a big Killers fan.

As far as the strip is concerned we haven't really planned what to see as we guessed we would struggle to see even half of what's there.

Do you have any suggestions or our wedding night meal?

[daytonababe]

If you want to visit the pawn star shop its best to go early on in the day , from memory Rick etc are there daily from 9 til 3 , they were there when we went but they stayed out the back... though next yr my 9yr old reckons he wants Chumlee's autograph:-)

I prefer the outlet thats nearest to Downtown but i'd visit them all if i could.

What sort of budget do u have for your wedding meal? I hear the restuarant at the top of the Stratosphere is good but i've never been there.

[Glee Fan]

What about Olives at the Bellagio - you can try and request a patio table and feel like you are practically on top of the fountains. We did this for a special meal and we loved every minute. Food was lovely and not massively expensive either.

I too have never been to the Stratosphere restaurant, but know people who have and they enjoyed it. It just doesn't appeal to me to go there at night I'm afraid.

Have you had any more thoughts?

[smudge79]

We have now decided. Our wedding planner had booked us a table at Canaletto but we were talking and decided we wanted something a bit more romantic. We had a good look and have decided on Prime at Bellagio. We have a fountain view table booked and love the look of the place. Getting excited now.
We will probably eat at Canaletto another night as we like the look of the menu. We are going to go to the Stratosphere bar for cocktails one evening.